I love the concept of story. I believe in the power of story and would call myself a storyteller. Story based communication is often the most powerful and has the longest lasting impact and potential to incite transformation and action. Bottom line: story is good.
However, I think we (I’m including myself in that) get dangerously close to using story as the latest “technique” or “strategy.” And I think in the process we are going to ruin it. Story is powerful because it’s relational and God designed us to be relational beings. When we turn it into a strategy or technique we strip away that relational quality.
I think we’d see a greater impact if we stopped trying so hard to tell a good story and instead we focused on simply living a good story. Because if we live a good story I think communicating in story will naturally flow out of that. I think we need to find a way to be intentional without being strategic. When we become too strategic we quickly lose focus of why we are really doing what we’re doing in the first place.
How do we do that? Short answer: I don’t know. I think I know what it looks like when I see it, but I can’t yet define how to get there. And maybe I never will…maybe it looks different for each individual/organization.
What are your thoughts? Agree? Disagree?
While I appreciate the heart of what I believe you're sharing to be true and authentic, I feel that you may have missed an opportunity to bring clarity to story by suggesting that we be intentional instead of being strategic.
Admittedly, I'm strategic by design (my StrengthsFinder top strength is strategy), but I see believe that without strategy, even good intentions (and intentionality) can quickly dissolve into a "Ready, Fire, Aim" scenario.
As we go about our days living out the life we should (intentionality), the story of our lives becomes more compelling to those with whom we interact. That's great, but without a strategy, we tend to become tactically focused (I want to do THIS thing today…and THAT thing tomorrow) and can easily live out a bunch of good things but miss out on the great things (a compelling storyline). We need to be driven by "Why?", not "What".
If we start with the "Why" – vision (what SHOULD be, not merely what could be) – we will begin to see which methods are possible and winnow down this list down to that which we should be doing to match our unique vision.
From there, determining "What" needs to be done will help us create goals. With our goals in mind, we can then determine "how" we should best go about doing it (tactics/actions).
In my experience, churches are full of people with good intentions, but often lack the strategy to determine why they need to tell their unique story, what they need to say/example, how they will do AND measure their results.
I'm with you on story being the most compelling way to communicate a message. It's also the most time-consuming and difficult, especially without the focus of a strategy, goals (measurable and time-based), actions and measurements (how did we do, did we do the right thing to the right people through the right medium at the right time).
My 2 cents,
Anthony
Not to get too lost in semantics, but I'm having trouble imagining "intentional" without "strategy"… Could this turn into a string of loosely-connected intentional moments/ideas/activities without a direction? Or perhaps the opposite would happen, where it's a much more beautiful tapestry, almost a mosaic, of accidental overlap and building blocks that makes something amazing. I would have trouble running an organization this way, with the assumption that ideas will overlap. But with anything that is worth doing, the execution is generally way better than we could have planned. :-)
Good thoughts!
Thanks, Erin-Leigh & Anthony, for sharing your thoughts.
I believe being intentional is more than just intentions – it's more than the thoughts. Intentional is an adjective meaning there has to be action behind it. Intentional by definition is doing things consciously and on purpose. I don't think a lot of people even really live intentionally. And that's where my struggle comes in. If you aren't focused on living a good story you may be able to fake telling one for a while but eventually you will be found out. Can it stop with living? We also need to be intentional about the telling flowing out of that but I think oftentimes that happens more naturally than we think.
My struggle with strategy is maybe negative connotations I've tacked onto it. I think I see more and more "strategy" taken too far and it feels almost like manipulation.
I'll throw this out there…maybe opening a can of worms, but…would you say Jesus was intentional or strategic? Or both?
Impacting a life with a three and a half minute song has to be an honest story or it has no hope. It has to be lived or it has no life. Strategy and purpose get you too the place where we share the story.
I agree with what Joe says.
If you are using story (or art for that matter) and the language that it comes with as propaganda for something else, then that's where you mess up.
If you make it look like "story" and "art" on the outside but it isn't so on the inside, fail.
Art and story can stand on it's own to deliver a message. And art and story are cultural scarcities in our churches today… they have more power than any of us realize…power to communicate truth…to reveal the glory of God and His hand at work.
Again, it can stand on it's own and the more room for interpretation, the more room for the Holy Spirit to do His thing in the midst of it.
That's not to say it can't be spelled out a little once in a while (especially for those who's heart-language doesn't include art).
I think the frustration here is the idea that more often than not, art is slapped on the package and becomes propaganda for something else….like it's decoration or something. And the thought of using art/story as your strategy for getting people to receive information not-related to the art/story itself is disgusting.
So in essence, it's what you are saying… story isn't your strategy.
That's not to say you can't be strategic and intentional about telling story or creating art for others to enjoy…. but using it as propaganda for something else devalues it.